Another Edition of Charter School Hysteria
07/19/2016
This stuff is really getting old, but this woman will not stop spreading misinformation.
Laura H. Chapman commented on Jersey Jazzman: What We DON'T KNOW about Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen Network.
in response to dianeravitch:
Jersey Jazzman has pulled together many of the questions that have been raised about the Gulen network of charter schools. We know that there are many of them, at least 160. That makes it the second largest chain in the nation, behind KIPP. We know that Gulen charter schools typically deny that they are part […]
Here is a goldmine of data assembled by a team of lawyers working on behalf of the Government of Turkey to bring Harmony Schools of Texas into the public eye for over-the top use of visas, issues of self dealing and the like.
Foreign nationals are permitted to own and operate US schools and receive taxpayer dollars for that. I believe that should be illegal. Private schools are a different matter, but these are really the hybrid, privately managed publically funded.
I understand that this legal team is working on behalf of the government of Turkey to discredit the whole enterprise of Harmony schools in Texas. I would love for this work to have been carried out by a legal team representing the US, not Turkey.
Followed by my response and a rhetorical question: Why would any Texan want the leader of a foreign country, under any circumstances real or imagined, meddling in their local schools?
Turkish government document:
At the Harmony Science Academy – West Houston, a male Turkish teacher with a
Bachelor’s degree and no experience, who teaches English Language Arts and “other”, is
paid $56,875 annually. At the same school, a female non-Turkish teacher, who has one
year of experience and teaches English Language Arts, “other”, and Social Studies is paid
$47,000 annually, a disparity of $9,875.
The paragraph above is just one example of the lies in that document. I can personally guarantee you that there is no man teaching ELA at the HSAWH. We had a male teaching tenth grade English at that school the year before last; I know him personally, but he was an American citizen (born and raised) and moved to a different state. You should make sure that the facts in your document are not fabricated by the Turkish government before you go running it in a blog because you could embarrass yourself. Furthermore, we do not have any teachers overlapping with social studies and ELA. They are completely different departments, and they are all staffed with Americans.
I have never known any Turkish person to teach English Language Arts at any Harmony school. I would know because I attend the cluster trainings with my colleagues. The TEA is going to throw the Turkish government’s documents in the trash because they already know everything there is to know about the educators, the visas, and the management.
I can’t understand why Xenophobes, like yourself, can’t find better things to do than try to hurt schools and children. We are not busting any unions here, this is Texas. And just like any school, you are going to find complaining parents. You are going to find complaining teachers, especially in the cruel world of edreform. But if you want to really find teachers and students that have been mistreated, I have a couple of leads for you. I have some really good stories, but they didn’t happen at Harmony.
The people of Texas do not want some foreign country meddling in the business of our local schools…you can quit panting and slobbering all over this issue because it amounts to absolutely nothing. Furthermore, it would be a terrible mistake to allow a theocrat like Erdogan to reach across the Atlantic to punish people that he imagines are not supportive of his fundamentalist Islamic plan. Today, he purged 15,000 educators in his own country because of his delusional obsession with Gulen. Do you not recognize insanity when you are faced with it?
The HB1 visas are legal. The US government is allowing these teachers to come here and contribute to our students, so why would you care? We are facing a shortage of qualified math and science teachers…there is no surplus, and no US citizen is denied a position based on what you are suggesting.
The students are introduced to teachers from around the world, not just Turkey. It’s true, some of them have a heavy accent from their native land. But the students adapt, and they become better listeners and more tolerant of people of other nationalities. That is what we want for our children…we want tolerance, understanding, and community.
Think about what you are doing and who you are supporting. Erdogan will murder the people that defy him. Be logical and read everything that you can find on Erdogan because he is becoming a dangerous and unstable president. Your hysteria, based on your hatred for charter schools, could lead to devastating consequences, not just for the students and teachers you are hurting at this moment, but for yourself because you are unwittingly providing support to a man bent on making Turkey a theocracy. In that theocracy little girls and boys will not be allowed to attend school together, Christians and Muslims will be separated, and human rights for all people will be further violated.